Riding the crest of Lackey's five-hit pitching, the Red Sox swept the Astros in a four-game series to finish a 7-3 home stand. They head to Toronto on Tuesday with an 18-7 record that is the best in baseball.

"I was looking to go maybe five innings. It might have been an inning more than people expected,'' Lackey said.

"It's taken a lot of hard work to get back to this point. Now I want to move forward.

"It's just a relief to know I'll get my next start.''

Lackey has not had that feeling in 614 days. His last victory had come Aug. 23, 2011.

He missed the entire 2012 season for Tommy John elbow surgery. Lackey worked his way back to start this season in the rotation, only to leave in the fifth inning of his first outing with a biceps injury unrelated to the surgery.

After three weeks on the disabled list, he says it's now a question of care and maintenance.

"We've got all sorts of (training) machines I get hooked up onto,'' Lackey said.

For the first time in years, however, he is pitching pain-free.

"For the last two years, John has been competing against his own body as much as the opponent,'' Red Sox manager John Farrell said.

"He gave us more than we anticipated today. After the first inning (when Houston scored on a hit and two walks), he got a lot of second-pitch outs and had some reach-back ability in the sixth.''

"They were swinging at pitches early in the count, and I got quite a few ground-ball outs,'' said Lackey, who recorded nine of his 18 outs on grounders.

He retired 13 in a row at one point. Leading 5-1 in the sixth, Lackey gave up three straight singles with one out.

He struck out Fernando Martinez and induced a grounder from Matt Dominguez to end the threat.

"That was fun. It was the first big challenge I'd faced in a long time,'' Lackey said.

The sixth inning was the last for Lackey, who was greeted by glove-slaps and high-fives as he reached the dugout. He finished with 56 strikes on 81 pitches with five strikeouts.

His only two walks were back to back in the first.

"The first one (to Jason Castro), he fouled off a couple of pitches and it went to 3-2. That wasn't too bad, but the second walk (to Carlos Peña) – that was not good,'' Lackey said.

The Red Sox have won five straight since a 13-0, seven-inning loss on a rainy Tuesday night to Oakland. In that game, Alfredo Aceves took the injured Lackey's spot in the rotation and pitched himself a ticket to Triple A.

Stephen Drew's two-run, two-out triple broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth Sunday. The game ended with a spectacular catch by right-fielder Daniel Nava on a Robbie Grossman drive.